Today it was announced that the Closed Beta test will start April 19th, 2012 through April 28th, 2012.

- This date is subject to change due to any unexpected problems.
- The Closed Beta data is deleted after it is finished.

Even though they are still accepting applications for the beta, they have already started sending Beta winner emails. These emails are not sent all in one go, so just wait until yours arrives. They have 100,000 emails to send out and they don’t want all of you downloading the client at the same time so the emails will be sent out in bursts.

Those who are invited to the Closed Beta will receive a link for the Closed Beta Players website in the invitation email.

Quote:

Dengeki Interview

Shougai posted a new interview about Arks Cash, Playstation Vita, and the Update plans.

Arks Cash and FUN Gacha!
- Players can rent My Rooms for 30 days.
- Two kinds of Arks Scratch, one that has costumes, and the other has costumes and consumption items.
- There’s also a free Gacha called FUN Scratch, that uses FUN points.
- You can get things like room items and other items.
- You can collect FUN points through player evaluations.
- Like for example 1 person can say “Good Job” through a menu to someone else and that will increase both of the players’ Fun points. ((It is unknown currently what restrictions they have on player evaluations, like once a day or one time per person?))
- You can also collect Fun points by doing quests with Friend Partners.
- *Friend Partners are NPC AI’s of your friends characters*
- You can also get points by purchasing Arks Cash

Updates
- Sakai plans to update the game every 3 to 4 weeks with maps, system updates, scratch contents, etc.
- Plans to add new classes later
- The level cap once the game comes out would be around level 40. This cap will increase as the game progresses.
- Initially, players can choose to play up to Hard difficulty, but they plan to have several types of difficulties. You can unlock these difficulties once you meet a certain condition.
- After the game comes out they plan to add super huge bosses in multi-parties.
- These bosses are much bigger than normal bosses, and you can have 12 players fight it.
- They plan to start off with 3 planets.

Playstation Vita
- He’s still investigating this, but for now he thinks the Vita version should use the onscreen keyboard.
- He will probably have the beta test for PSO2 Vita start sometime during the fall through winter, but nothing is definite yet

Quote:

FUN Points

The third form of currency in the game is FUN points, whether you are a paying user or not, all players can gain FUN points through the following methods.

All Players Can Acquire Fun Points by:
- Logging into the game (If you log in each consecutive day, you could get bonus points. For example, you can log in Wed, Thur, Fri to get bonus points, instead of Wed, then Friday.)
- Sending and Receiving Good Jobs (The amount of FUN you can get in a day is limited)
- When you summon a “Friend Partner” and clear the quest, or someone summons your character.
- Game Ranking rewards

You also get a small percentage of FUN points when you spend Arks Cash. Isn’t it fun?

Good Job is like Facebook’s “like” button. You can say “Good Job” to any player for any situation. When you say Good Job, you also get FUN points.

You can also attach a comment, like saying “Thank you very much.” You can also send Good Jobs to players in your “Communication History” like those you partied with before. You could also send it to players who used your character as a Friend Partner.http://bumped.org/psublog/wp-content...od-job-you.jpg

FUN Scratch includes
- Room Items
- Music Disks ( for use in My Room’s Jukebox to change the BGM)
- Tickets for Accessories and hairstyles
- Special Devices for Mags
- Tickets for additional lobby actions
- My Room 3 day usage
- Limited Time Effect Items (These are not as powerful as AC versions)
- Boost Items (These are not as powerful as AC versions)
- Grinder and Synthesizer

Items you obtained in Fun Scratch can be given to other players, (he didn’t specifically state, but I’m assuming trading/player shops).

The closed beta is starting tomorrow, it's been confirmed that in the beta there are going to be 5 Ships (servers), and, for those who got invited to the beta, alot of english speaking players seem to be choosing Ship 2.
Here's the latest news about the closed beta:

Quote:

The official blog was updated today with some more info about the beta starting tomorrow. A huge list of what is actually going on in the closed beta was posted and is more or less as follows:

Arks Cash

All Arks Cash (AC) items are set at 10 AC for the closed beta

Each tester will recieve 1000 AC to use.

You can't purchase more AC during the testing period

The items in the store and scratches (gatcha) will be limited during the beta and will change for the official launch

FUN

FUN can be gained by logging in, using AC, using certain aspects of the game (Good Job!), and as a reward for being in the top three for the weeks ranking

FUN can be used in a FUN scratch

The contents of the FUN scratch will change for the official launch

Races

Human, casts, and newmen will be available, just like the official launch

Character Creation

Only a limited amount of costume items will be available in the closed beta

Players will only have one character to begin with.

New character slots can be purchased with AC

New costumes, accessories, and character voices

The "Cat Ears" accessory will now match your hair color

Characters can be saved and loaded as files on your computer

New facial variations for male and female characters

The Beauty Shop will allow you to change your character in game

You can now get parts and clothing in game (you couldn't do this in the alphas.)

Parts and clothing can be equipped from the equipment menu

Classes

The max level for the closed beta is 20

Classes can be changed at the class counter

Raising a character to level 10 in any class will mean that account will recieve a "Weapon Hologram" room decoration in the open beta

Skill Trees

Skill trees for all classes have been completely changed

New skill trees can be added by spending AC allowing you to take you character in a different direction

Play Records

Titles are now available from the title counter

Item collections and player records are visible from a visi-phone

Player Related Battle

Partisans, launchers, and talis weapons are now usable

On death, you can choose to return to the camp ship or use a scape doll if you have one

You can now switch between different subpalletes like you could with your main pallete

Enemy Related Battle

Several new enemies including the new boss Dark Ragne

Boxes appear after defeating bosses instead of bosses dropping items

Destroying parts of boss enemies increases the number of boss boxes

Boost enemies will appear

Starting enemies are weaker because they were found to be too strong

Some enemies have been tweaked graphically to better fit the PSO2 world

Some dragon-type enemies now have voices

Mags

By rasing any class level to 10 and completing a specific client order allows you to obtain a mag license. This lets you own and use a mag

Mags evolve in to their second stage at level 50

Mag levels are capped at 99 in the closed beta

Lobby

New lobbies have been implemented in the closed beta

Quests

2 new quest types: Story and Emergency

You can invite NPCs and friend characters from the new Partner Terminal in the camp ship

It is now easier to join other parties in an MPA than it was in the second alpha

You can see more information about quests at the quest counter, including 7 days worth of data on drops, special effects, and enemies

Ha, ha yes that would probably be a help.
No news on english language beta ? I guess that will just be the finished game.

I could be wrong but as far as I know the next beta(open beta) will also be in Japanese. And the launch language should also initially be Japanese only. It'd be killer if it came out in English though, I've been playing since 2000 and it feels like I've been waiting for this sequel forever, I NEED this in English! lol

Video of me going through the Forest area in the closed Beta as a Ranger, which is one of the 3 classes from the game, a guns based class. The other 2 are Hunter, a melee based class, and Force, a magic based class.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZm_eepvo-w

Satoshi Sakai went on stage to present the 2nd Fan Briefing. He announced some of the results of the Closed Beta Test and introduced new features implemented in the Open Beta Test. Unfortunately the Open Beta Test dates were not announced today.

Later on PSO2 will implement a Desert Planet, new costumes, new story quests, and a time attack quest. But for now let’s go through what’s actually coming in the Open Beta.

Quote:

OBT: New Planet Lilipa

Lilipa: A harsh environment where the whole planet is covered in sand. It has the remains of a civilization that existed once before. In many places there are structures that mine resources from the planet.

Desert: An area covered in sand. There’s hardly any traces of lifeforms, but there seems to be robots roaming about. They seem to have lost their masters and attack indiscriminately. The Arks have also confirmed the presence of the Darkers.

During the Closed Beta, several disconnections and server issues occurred making the game somewhat unplayable. People also had a difficult time sending in bug reports as the official site ran slowly. Despite this, Phantasy Star Online 2 official release schedule will not change. They will continue to release the game sometime Early Summer 2012.

To make sure these server issues do not reoccur, it is possible that depending on the situation, they may have to perform an additional closed beta test before the Open Beta starts. This CBT2 (or whatever they call it) would only run for a very short amount of time. The details of whether or not this will happen will be discussed at a later time. Sakai just wants to make sure he doesn’t have such network problems when the Open Beta Test starts.

In the Open Beta Test, they will introduce a new field on the planet Lilipa. It’s a planet under a harsh environment covered completely in sand. Throughout the planet you’ll see the remains of structures that apparently were used to collect resources from the planet. Liliipa is a dangerous place filled with robots who attack indiscriminately and Darkers. In the open beta you can level your classes up to level 30. There will also be a Hard Mode for those Level 20+.

Story Quests will be added to the game, the scenes showed the discovery of small creatures on Lilipa, and a small meeting with the Dragon Tribe on Planet Amduscia. There’s also new characters like ***12466;***12483;***12486;***12512;***12495;***12523;***12488; Gechtemhalt? voiced by Nubuo Tobita, and Melfoshina voiced by Kana Hanazawa. Furie as seen in this screenshot is voiced by Hisako Kanemoto.

In addition, the official release will add time attack quests which will have a ranking similar to other quests. The official game plans to add a new field called “Frozen Soil.” This field is on the planet Naberius. Sakai also plans to update the game roughly once per month.

In Part 2, Sakai and Kimura took the stage to discuss about additional features and answer questions from fans. It even looks like they may hold a symbol art contest.

One of the questions asked if it would be possible to move our characters across ships. It appears due to the server issues, this won’t be implemented just yet and is kind of a difficult process yo do. However, they are currently testing this service to see how it pans out.

Another fan asked about the possibility of making Symbol Art outside of the game, the staff may think about it.

They are still investigating how they should have the pricing scheme for Arks Cash. They are thinking about charging something like 1AC = 1 Yen? Of course the prices in the CBT aren’t going to be the same as the official game.

There will be 8 types of weapon for the official release, but more will appear later on. During the presentation someone shouted for Double Sabers, and Sakai responded that they’ll put them in. In addition, expect to see the Knuckle weapon category.

Also at the end they showed off a new map. This map was described as a near futuristic mechanical area full of robotic enemies. They didn’t discuss the name of the map but you should expect to see it in the official game.

Thanks to everyone who participated in PSO2***8242;s Closed Beta Test. During the test they had several network problems with disconnections and lag. After some investigation, it was discovered that the main cause of the problem was due to their machine settings. They want to arrange the opportunity to run the test again to make sure the network problems do not occur in the Open Beta Test. So the next test will be called the “Pre-Open Beta Test“. Unfortunately he can not announce the exact schedule at this time but this Pre-Open beta Test starts in late June.

On May 23rd, 2012, he will start registrations for the Open Beta Test. New registrants will also be able to participate in the Pre-Open Beta Test. For those who participated in the Closed Beta Test, you do not need to register again. If there are no major issues in the Pre-Open Beta Test, he will then start the Open Beta Test. The data from the Open Beta Test will be transferred to the Official Game.

From the Open Beta Test, he will collect feedback and reports and assemble a list of responses based on the feedback.

He thinks there’s still some ways to go and aims to make the game as enjoyable as possible.

Quote:

Closed Beta Test Report

- About 147,000 Downloads
- About 131,000 Logged in user
- 23,500 simultaneous connections on April 21st
- Average 21,000 simultaneous connections a day
- 63,000 Average Logins a day.

The blue bar represents simultaneous connections while the red bar shows logged in users each day.

The simultaneous connections value is quite low, this is due to the network troubles that occurred on the server. Also he believes since you were generally able to connect at anytime during the day (compared to alpha tests), less people decided to log in at the same time.

Compared to last time, there were less feedback and requests, but there were more bug reports and BBS posts.

There were about 37,000 submissions to the survey.

Whether or not they participated in previous tests:
- 56.9% of people did not participate in previous alpha tests
- 26.1% participated in the alpha test 2
- 15.8% participated in alpha test 1 and 2
- 1.2% of people participated in alpha test 1 only.

Whether or not they will pay cash items and play the game when it officially starts:
- 61.7% don’t know if they’ll purchase cash items but will play.
- 21.1% will purchase cash items and will play.
- 10.1% won’t purchase cash items but will play.
- 5.5% don’t know if they will play.
- 1.1% will not play the game.

PSO2 CBT Grading:

What systems people will play PSO2 on and Control Schemes used:

- 61.9% of people will play PC only.
- 14.6% will play on PlayStation Vita and PC
- 11.2% will play PC version and Smartphone
- 7.8% will play all systems
- 4.5% Other

- 38.9% played with keyboard and Mouse
- 44.1% Gamepad and Keyboard (kb only for chat)
- 17.0% Gamepad and Keyboard

Again like in Alpha Test 2, “increase weapon categories” was the most requested. In second place just like last time, people want more PA and Skills. It seems many of you wanted them to improve the action portions of the game.

The number of weapon categories have already been decided when the official game starts. In a future update expect additional weapon categories.

Last night, PSO2 Pre-Open Beta Registration page opened up, so today we’re going to discuss the purpose of this test and how to sign up. Despite all that has happened, Sakai is still pushing for his “early summer” release, even on the Pre-open beta page.

Pre-Open Beta

Quote:

- The contents of this test will be discussed at the official site at a later time.
- The schedule for this test will be announced at the official site and twitter.- Those who registered in Alpha Test 1, Alpha Test 2, and Closed Beta Test are automatically included in this test.
- Those who registered after the closed beta test for the email newsletter are also included in this test.
- There is no need for people to register again if they fall in the above conditions.
- The purpose of this test is to carry out a stress test on the servers.
- The Pre-Open Beta Test Data will not transfer over to the Open Beta Test.
- The Open Beta Test data will transfer over to the Official Game.
- A special gift will be given to those who participate in this pre-open beta test.

The next page is just informing you that you should receive an email from Sega within 10 minutes. Check your email for a message from SEGA ID, click the link inside to continue registration.

Type in your birthday and desired username.
Birth year then month then day. Please note that the month and day must be two digits. For example: February 2nd is 02***26376; 02***26085;. Type in your desired username below and be sure to click the button underneath it. It will pop up blue if the ID is available, or red if the ID is unavailable.

Type in your password and confirm it.

Secret Question:
- ***36890;***12387;***12390;***12356;***12383;***24188;***31258;***22290;***65288;***20445;***32946;***22290;***65289;***12398;***21517;***21069;***12399;***65311; The name of the kindergarten or nursery school you went to.
- ***29983;***12414;***12428;***12383;***30010;***21517;***12399;***65311; The name of the town/city you were born in.
- ***26368;***21021;***12395;***20055;***12387;***12383;***36554;***12398;***36554;***31278;***12399;***65311;First Car Make or Model.
- ***23376;***20379;***12398;***38915;***12398;***24999;***12428;***12398;***36984;***25163;***12399;***65311; Childhood role model.
- ***21021;***24651;***12398;***20154;***12398;***12501;***12449;***12540;***12473;***12488;***12493;***12540;***12512;***12399;***65311; First name of your first love.
- ***26368;***21021;***12395;***39164;***12387;***12383;***12506;***12483;***12488;***12398;***21517;***21069;***12399;***65311; First pet’s name
- ***20013;***23398;***26657;***19977;***24180;***29983;***12398;***26178;***12398;***25285;***20219;***12399;***65311;Your (final year) middle school homeroom teacher.

Click the button below the page to submit. On the next page click the top button (at the bottom of the page) again to confirm.

Then click the Service Registration button to continue.

Scroll down until you see “***12501;***12449;***12531;***12479;***12471;***12540;***12473;***12479;***12540;***12458;***12531;***12521;***12452;***12531;2”
Click on Service Registration button again.

Phantasy Star Online 2 still plans to officially release in early summer 2012! In the official release, a new field called the Frozen Tundra will be added to the game. (4Gamer chose to say the game is releasing “this summer” while Famitsu held on to Sakai’s definition of “early summer.”)

Quote:

New Field: Frozen Tundra

The Frozen Tundra is a field on the Planet Naberius covered in snow and ice! A complete change from the gentle climate of the Forest you all know. In this field, the native enemies have adapted to the harsh environment and continue to attack amidst the violent snowstorms.

Due to the problems that occurred in the Closed Beta Test, PSO2 must undergo a stress test to see if network problems will arise again. Because of this, the connection times for the Pre-Open Beta are very limited.

The goal of the Pre Open Beta Test is to see if any of the following problems will occur:
- Will unexpected communication delays occur?
- Will the server reach its limits on allowing a certain number of people to connect at the same time?
- Will large-scale disconnections occur?
- Will any other problems occur on the servers?

If there are no major problems, we will then move on to the Open Beta Test. Unfortunately your play data in the Pre-Open Beta test is reset once the test is over. If everything goes smoothly, Sakai plans to start the Open Beta within a week of the pre-open beta test. If there are no problems in the Open Beta test, they will quickly start the official game.

The Pre-Open Beta Test will add a special quest and the Desert planet among other things.

Those who participate in the Pre-Open Beta Test will receive the Bouquet Rifle if they clear the following quest:
- ***12304;***12503;***12524;OBT***38480;***23450;***12305;***30722;***28448;***20219;***21209; Desert Mission

The Bouquet Rifle will be delivered to you some time in the Open Beta Test. All classes may equip the Bouquet Rifle, however, only the Ranger has access to the Photon Arts.

The pre-open beta will add a special quest and the desert field. This quest has special requirements only for the Pre-Open Beta Test and is available to play at level 1. However in the Open Beta Test, you will not be able to play the desert field at level 1.

- During the Pre-Open and Open Beta you will not be able to purchase Arks Cash, so My Room and My Shop will be available to all players during this time.
- While your premium set ticket is active, the FUN points you receive for logging in consecutively each day will increase.
- Using the Aesthetics counter, the following features are free: Eye Pattern, Eye Color, Eyebrows, Eyebrow color, Eyelashes, Makeup Pattern 1&2.
- You can level up your character to Level 30 in Open and Pre-Open Beta.
- Planet Lillipa will be added along with new Robot type enemies and brand new Darkers.
- Elemental attributes weaknesses were added to some enemies.
- You can now obtain a mag at level 5 instead of 10.
- Instead of Level 50, a mag can evolve to its second form at Level 30.
- Food Device effectiveness has decreased.
- During the Pre-Open Beta, a special quest will be added so you can gain access to the desert immediately. If you clear this quest you will receive the Bouquet Rifle at the Open Beta. The Bouquet Rifle can be equipped by all classes.
- Hard mode is available for each quest if the character is level 20 or above. However, in order to access hard mode you must complete a specific client order.
- The time limit, enemy levels, and PSE occurrence rate has been adjusted in the Emergency Quest (City).
- Some new emergency trial variations were added.
- The second matter board was added. The matter board completion screen will also be shown in the camp ship after the quest results screen is shown.
- You can accept client orders even if you do not use the Matter Board.
- They will re-examine the locations of certain hard to find characters. (I assume that’s for the pink haired Newman.)
- To reduce server load, there will be less chairs to sit on in the lobby.
- The Item lab and Tekker shop has moved down a floor.
- There have been changes to the structure of each class skill tree.
- EXP FULL will be displayed when you kill an enemy and you are at the highest class level.
- You will be notified on screen when the boost item effects wear off.
- 16 button gamepads are now supported and configurable.
- A max frame rate function was added.
- Virtual full screen mode selection.
- Full screen mode resolution selection.
- If you connect to PSO2 from a net cafe, you can receive net cafe points and use an exclusive shop.
- Optimizations to make the game run lighter will be carried out if necessary after the official release.
- For the Open Beta, they thought they could implement a video capturing mode, but this is now abandoned.

PSO2 will be Free 2 Play and Free to Download. You can play quests and story missions for free. Free players will not have limits imposed on their class levels nor playing time. They will not allow the direct sales of highly over powerful weapons that could affect game balancing. Through updates you can enjoy new bosses, new fields, and new quests for free!

Through communication, you can gain FUN points for use with the Free Gacha “FUN Scratch.” In this scratch, you can obtain room items, music disks, and additional lobby actions. Through here, you can get some exclusive features for free, for example, you may receive a ticket that lets you open up your My Room and My Shop for Free for 3 Days!

For paying users, you can enjoy additional features through Arks Cash. The items included under Arks Cash are not required for playing. There are no direct sales of highly over powerful weapons nor cash quests. 1 AC = 1 Yen!

The Premium Set will cost 1300 AC or 1300 Yen. This will open up additional and exclusive features for paying customers. The premium set is most suitable for players who’d wish to pay monthly for the game.

Don’t forget you can still get a ticket for free to use My Room and My Shop for 3 days. My Room, My Shop, and Storage expansions could be purchased separately for 700 AC. You can also take out items from your expanded storage box after the ticket expires.

Quote:

Arks Cash Items:

The items included in the AC Scratch are not required to play the game. The scratch is for players who want their characters to be stylish, or for those who want items to enjoy the game more.

AC Scratch: 200 Yen
AC Scratch Gold: 500 Yen

Various items are included in the cheaper 200 AC scratch, however the Gold version only contains clothes and parts.

*As for the Aesthetic Counter, the following changes occurred:
- You may now change the Eye Pattern, Eye Color, Eyebrows, Eyelashes, and Makeup Pattern 1&2 for Free!
- Items you’ve obtained through AC Scratch (costumes, hairstyles, and accessories) can be changed for free at the counter.

For those that might be interested in this game, the Pre-Open Beta is going to be tomorrow, June 15, and after tomorrow, June 16.
Since it's just a stress test, it won't last long and the servers will be online only during Japan's prime time.

If the pre-open beta goes through without issues, the Open Beta should start sometime next week.
Even though the tests are being held in Japanese servers for Japanese players, everyone can participate, even players from other countries.

Like other Online RPGs, the servers (called ships in PSO2) are separate, and when you create a character in one ship, you can't use it in other ships. Alot of english speaking communities are planning on playing in the server "Ship 02".

Each ship is also separated in blocks, unlike ships, players can switch between blocks freely. English communities are planning on playing in Block 20, and when it gets full, they recommend playing in Block 21, 22, and so on.

Oh, an important note, players can only have 1 character during the Open Beta.

Those who register for the Pre-Open Beta are automatically registered for the Open Beta. Also, while characters from the Pre-Open Beta will be wiped when the test ends, characters from the Open Beta will be transfered to the release version.

The pre-open beta went well, it reached a peak of 41500 simultaneous connections with close to no lag. Taking into consideration I'm an European player connecting to Japanese servers in an online action RPG, it's quite impressive how little lag there was during the pre-open beta (except for a few lag spikes).

Here is a video I recorded during the pre-open beta, the video is from the pre-open beta exclusive desert quest.

The desert area will be available in the open beta and release versions, but they won't be available so early on in the game.

About the open beta, it's going to start in about 4 hours, SEGA hasn't announced yet when the open beta will end, but if the open beta goes well, they plan to launch the game soon after the open beta ends.
Also, open beta characters will be transfered to the release version, the open beta and release versions will use the same client as the pre-open beta, and those who registered for any of the previous tests are automatically registered for the open beta.

Check my previous post for details on how to register or where to download the client.
Here's also a guide for the early part of the game, including the login process, the tutorial, and some of the more important menus:http://bumped.org/psublog/pre-open-b...star-online-2/

Note that the majority of english players are planning on playing in the Ship 02 server, in the block 20. If block 20 gets full, there will be english players in blocks 21, 22, and so on.
Also, it's only possible to create 1 character, more character slots have to be purchased. More than 1 character is not really needed though, since it's possible to switch between any of the available classes in-game for free.